


entwined

by ivelostmyspectacles



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon), 悪魔城ドラキュラ | Castlevania Series
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Gen Work, Hair Braiding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-14 15:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16495193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/ivelostmyspectacles
Summary: “She would tie it off with a ribbon, and wear it over her shoulder.” Alucard folds his hands atop his book again. “When I was younger, she would plait mine as well."aka Sypha braids Alucard's hair and Trevor is lowkey annoyed he wasn't invited to the makeover





	entwined

It’s a windy night at camp before Sypha dares to bridge the gap between them, and reach out to gently touch Alucard’s hair.

She hesitantly sweeps a piece of the blond hair behind his ear, and Alucard looks up from the book he’s holding so carefully onto. His eyebrows lift, but his face remains otherwise impassive. Sypha almost falters. But the wind whips his hair back into his face again, and he raises a hand to brush it behind an ear with a faint look of annoyance, and Sypha laughs, and pushes forward.

“I can pull it back for you,” she says, and her hands hesitate next to his shoulder. She won’t make a move without his approval.

From the beginning, he had always seemed unapproachable, somehow. In a certain way. And that was _fair,_ given who he was and what he was trying to do. But Sypha liked to think that they had become _friends_ now. She wanted to close the distance between them, the one that lingered even now.

But she hesitates, because she respects him, because she respects the boundaries he hasn’t even begun to fully articulate between any of them. Vaguely, she wonders if he even knows his boundaries himself.

“I don’t have a ribbon.”

“I don’t need one.”

He looks at her for a moment longer, face a cross between amusement and curiosity. He inclines his head, ever so slightly. An inquiry, and it serves to let his hair fall back in his face once again. It seems to be the deciding factor. He gestures in approval, and turns his head so Sypha can access his hair.

“Work your magic, then,” he says.

Sypha smiles. She has to move in a little, straightening her spine to be able to clear the height difference a little and take the strain off her arms. Then, she gently weaves her fingers into the blond strands, and starts to carefully comb through it.

The sheer amount of Alucard's hair is impressive. Sypha's never worn her hair long herself; she had told Trevor it was safer as a Speaker and that was true. But it had always seemed so _inconvenient,_ in your way and easily knotted. Especially with her circumstances, always on the road with her family, it was always easier to have short hair and her grandfather had always obliged. She couldn't imagine having long hair.

But now, fingers intent on working through Alucard's, she thought she might appreciate it, just a little more.

He was beautiful, objectively speaking. She had thought so when they had first met him, in the catacombs when all of them had been none the wiser. When he had turned his attention on her and she had momentarily fumbled, internally tongue tied and certain there was a blush on her cheeks. Her feelings towards him weren't _like that,_ but even she couldn't deny his beauty.

Alucard makes a soft noise, and Sypha startles out of her musings. Her hands fall motionless. Uncertain. “Did I hurt you?” She realizes it's a ludicrous question after she asks it, when Alucard hums a tiny laugh from between closed lips.

“No. It feels nice.”

“Oh.” She hadn't expected that. But she's glad. “Good.” She continues, until each of the small tangles are free, until the dust and dirt of their day on the road is swept free by her fingers. And then she starts to separate his hair, into three thick sections, and begins to braid.

It’s been awhile since she’d learned how to do this, but she’s pleased to find that her hands seem to remember it better than she can; she can’t exactly put words to the motion except twisting the sections together, but her fingers manage to plait Alucard’s hair with surprising accuracy. She’s pleased.

Even moreso when she finishes off the braid organically, and removes her hands from his hair to realize that Alucard’s eyes have slipped closed, and that his hands have stilled on the book in his lap. He looks… peaceful, for a moment, before he opens his eyes and turns his head slightly towards hers.

“You know how to plait hair,” he remarks, fingers slipping along the braid. He almost sounds surprised, but looks _happy._ And something else, something Sypha can’t really place right then.

“Yes. My grandfather taught me, once, when we were staying in a village with many children. They were delighted when we taught them a new hairstyle.” It had seemed like such a small thing at the time. She had been fairly young herself, naive. She wonders if she had taken it for granted. She remembers the children being excited, but she can’t remember if they had the same look on their faces as the one that’s now on Alucard’s.

“My mother used to braid her hair,” he says, and, _oh,_ now she understands. The look on his face is… _wistful._

“… oh?”

“She would tie it off with a ribbon, and wear it over her shoulder.” Alucard folds his hands atop his book again. “When I was younger, she would plait mine as well. And my father’s.”

“Really?”

 _“He_ would plait _hers,_ too, if you can believe it,” he continues, and the wry smile he always seems to have when speaking of his father has returned. He _missed_ him, Sypha had realized a long while ago. He still does. Misses the man that had helped him to grow, the father who had raised him to be who he was today. And Sypha can’t fault him for that. Of course he misses him.

It’s just… sad.

“Dracula plaiting his human wife’s hair…” Alucard murmurs, and then chuckles. “The people would never believe it.”

“I believe it,” she says quietly, and Alucard turns his gaze fully to her.

“Why?” he asks, shifting to face her. “You didn’t know him.”

“I know you.”

Maybe the words slip out too easily. Probably, she should have thought about them a little more because Alucard just looks immediately _surprised_ by the fact she’s said them at all. But Sypha stands by them. Mostly. She doesn’t know him _well,_ but she knows him well enough to take that tone of voice and the look on his face and know he’s not lying, or teasing, or deflecting. Not this time.

It doesn’t last long, but that’s okay. _“Do_ you?” he eventually asks, and now the humor’s back in his voice. Just a little.

Before Sypha can open her mouth to reply in kind, Trevor’s back with firewood in his arms and leaves in his hair.

“Pretty sure I walked into three different spiderwebs, so if you see one of the eight-legged bastards on me, make sure you…” Trevor trails off, looking between the two of them. “Wait. What?”

“What what? _You’re_ the one staring,” Sypha says.

“Who braided his hair? Did you braid his hair? Did you two just sit here and… do makeovers while I was out doing _actual_ work?”

“A shame,” Alucard murmurs, once again opening his book. “Everyone knows you could have done with one.”

“At least I’m not wearing my hair like a _woman’s,”_ Trevor grunts, dropping the wood next to their campfire. Before Sypha can even begin to chastise him– _especially_ after the conversation regarding the memory of Alucard’s mother, despite how Trevor could not have known– Alucard beats her to it.

“At least I wash my hair,” he says, flat, and Sypha can’t help but to laugh.

Trevor splutters in indignation, and Alucard smirks as they bicker. They’re fine. Everything is fine.

If Alucard’s fingers make their way back to trace along the braid later in the evening, Sypha only smiles, and says nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> I said, watching s2 "if somebody don't braid his hair like his mama's, then what's the point" plus... if you know me, you know I have to put a braid in every single character who has long enough hair to do it, so unsurprisingly here we are
> 
> more bff Alu and Sypha kthx


End file.
